Health Care Reform

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, here you have it, what we have been waiting for for weeks and weeks, what has been put together behind closed doors. People all across the country have seen the doors behind which people, in secret, have been writing this bill. It is 2,074 pages. Some people call it remarkable; I call it a monstrosity.

The leader of the majority, Senator Reid, has said that of all the bills we have seen, it will be the best. Mr. President, it is the best of the worst. It just looks like more of the same. All of the things I have been talking about--it still does those sorts of things. It still raises taxes on Americans, higher payroll taxes--and this is the Associated Press talking, not just me. Companies will pay a fee. That is from the Associated Press as well. It adds an array of tax increases, a rise in payroll taxes. That is from the Washington Post. It relies primarily on a new tax. That comes from the Washington Post as well. Then the New York Times says: New taxes and new fees. It is more of the same. It is the best of the worst.

What about Medicare cuts? Oh, they are in here, too, you better believe it. It is relying on cuts in future Medicare spending to cover costs. That is from the Associated Press. It is financed through billions of dollars in Medicare cuts. That is from the Washington Post. There will be reductions in Medicare. It is all in here--taking away the health care of the seniors of this country, who have relied on Medicare and have been promised Medicare, to start a brandnew program which is in these 2,074 pages. It is just wrong.

Then look at the budget gimmicks. The costs of this legislation--and the CBO came up with some number, but it is not what the real cost is. This thing is going to cost $2.5 trillion over a 10-year period. They try to get the number down. How do they do it? They start collecting taxes on day one, but until they actually implement the program--the things that are supposed to help Americans, they have delayed those things through 2014. Here we are in 2009, and the people who are watching at home and saying: This is going to help me next week, forget it, wait another 5 years. That is the way they maneuver and manipulate the numbers.

Here we have it--a bill that still raises taxes, still cuts Medicare, uses lots of budget gimmicks, and will cost the American people trillions and trillions of dollars.

Mr. President, obviously health care is one of the most important issues Congress is going to take up this year and maybe in our careers in the Senate. This may be the most important issue and bill we are ever asked to vote upon.

I travel home to Wyoming every weekend. I talk to people. I was there for 5 days over Veterans Day.

I say to them: What do you need? What do you think? What are your thoughts on this?

They say: Deliver to Washington a clear and simple message: Fix what is wrong with the health care system. Whatever you do, don't make things worse for me.

I have town meetings and ask people: Do you think it is going to cost more or less if this is passed? And I have had telephone townhall meetings with folks around Wyoming, and there is a way you can poll and ask people their ideas. People believe it is going to cost them more. I ask: Is your care going to be better or worse? People believe it is going to be worse, that they are going to pay more and get less.

That is not the kind of value the people of Wyoming or anywhere in America want. It is not the kind of work they expect out of Congress. They want us to fix what is wrong with the health care system. As Senator Alexander said earlier, we need a step-by-step approach in the right direction, dealing with the things we can do to improve the system. Whatever you do, they say, don't make matters worse for me. That is what people care about. That is what they care about in the telephone townhall meetings and the meetings we have in person.

They say: What does this mean for me and my family? What will it mean to our health care? What happens if I get sick? That is what people care about. None of them want to read this bill, and probably none of them will read the bill. It is on the Internet, after weeks behind closed doors. I hope the people in Wyoming and around America read it so that they know about the travesties in the bill and the impact it will have on them personally. It is the wrong prescription for America. And it is not just me saying that.

Yesterday, there was an article in the Wall Street Journal, and the dean of Harvard Medical School--it is in Boston, which is where they have this whole Massachusetts health care plan. He said that it is not working in Massachusetts and that this is not going to work for America. He gave the health care bill we are looking at in this Congress a failing grade. It doesn't do a good job in dealing with costs, access, or quality. It misses the boat on all of them.

The people who believe this is going to be helpful collectively are delusional, absolutely wrong. They have no idea how this will be for the health of our Nation. Yet this is what we are looking at. As Senator Reid says, what we have seen, of all the bills he has seen, it is the best. It may be, but it is the best of the worst. It looks like more of the same.

Some people in Wyoming in townhall meetings say: Don't take away my freedom to choose the plan I want. Well, this bill sort of does that. If they have something they like, this has a lot of numbers and mandatory sets in there--the sorts of things that will take away freedoms of the people to choose specifically what they want because of all of the mandates this has to cover, and it has to cover this, that, and the next thing. A lot of people don't want that.

People also say: Don't cut my Medicare. I hear that all around Wyoming and around the country. There are 11 million people on Medicare Advantage. That Medicare Advantage Program is actually the only Medicare Program that does a good job of working on preventive care and coordinating care, and that is going to be slashed under this program. So we are going to take away prevention and the things that have to do with coordinated care. Just take a look at this monstrosity of over 2,000 pages.

People say: Don't cut my Medicare or raise my taxes. We are looking at 10.2 percent unemployment right now. This is not the time to raise taxes. It is just not the time. We need to focus on getting jobs moving in the economy and helping people hire new people. With that 10.2 percent unemployment, the last thing you want to do is raise taxes, but that is what this bill will do. That is not just me saying that; it is also the AP, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. All along the way, it is higher payroll taxes, companies paying fees, raising payroll taxes, primarily new taxes and fees--one after another--to pay for something the American people do not want.

The people say: Don't make me pay more for my family's health care. But that is what is going to happen across the board. Premiums are going to increase, the premiums for people who have insurance--the premiums people pay who have insurance. For the 85 percent of Americans who have insurance, those costs will go up. This plan was designed, theoretically, when it was announced a year ago, to get costs down, to get premium costs down. This raises the premiums for the American people.

We are living in a time and in an economy when people say they can't afford this sort of a bill. The American people don't want it.

I travel around the State and visit with people. I visited with a young lady from Cody, WY, who has health insurance through her job, and she likes it. She takes care of her family. She found out that because of increasing premiums--which will get worse if this bill passes--the raises people think they are going to get will not be coming to them. In some places, they have had their pay cut a little bit so they can continue with the health care they have. They like the care, but they don't like the cost of their care. Again, this doesn't get the costs down for American families. Premiums will go up.

This is what we have been seeing all across the country. Whether it is independent people, whether it is people who work for government, whether it is people who sell insurance or those who buy insurance or people who need insurance, across the board, people say these atrocious health care proposals will make matters worse for the families, for the men and women of this country. They are going to be paid for not just by them but also by the young people, as the debt continues to accumulate in our Nation and goes on to impact the young people of this Nation.

The people of Wyoming want practical, commonsense health care reform--the kinds of reforms that will drive down the cost of medical care, that will improve access to providers, that will create more choices. They don't want things that will increase the costs or things that will limit access or things that will take away their choices.

Obviously, the majority leader and the Democrats in Congress have a very different plan in mind. Their legislation is going to force upon Americans higher health insurance costs through higher premiums, higher taxes, Medicare cuts, and more government control over health care decisions. That is not reform.

There are only two physicians in the Senate. The two of us bring a unique perspective to the health care debate. I practice medicine, taking care of families from all across the great State of Wyoming. I have dedicated my life's work to helping patients live longer, live healthier, and stay well. I can say, without reservation, in this Nation, we do offer some of the finest medical care in the world. I am not blind to the fact that our health care system has failings. I have seen them firsthand. We can fix a broken system in a way that actually works to get costs down, to get more people covered, to give people more choices, not in this plan, not in this atrocious plan which raises taxes, cuts Medicare, and takes away choices from the American people.

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